To conclude this series, we will today take up what I consider as the most important measure that government and us as individuals and groups, in our different ways, should take towards helping the development of entrepreneurship in the country.
There is no doubt that there are smart, hardworking, and honest people in both our private and public sectors. These people will strive to do whatever is right and fair in any situation they may find themselves. May God bless them abundantly. Sadly, on the other hand, we have, predominantly, as a people, deviated away from the fundamental principles of doing things in a way that success will be achieved and sustained at minimum cost possible.
Over the last four decades, we have come to adopt, God knows from where, mindsets, attitudes and behaviours that are completely antithesis to individual, collective, and lasting success in life. We should not mistake ‘more money’ that we can and are probably making as disproving what I am saying. Remember, individuals and groups engaged in criminal activities, from banditry to human and drug trafficking, also make money. But money is a true success part-measure only if it is made honestly through providing desired value that does not hurt others for which they are willing to pay.
Over these last four decades, we have wrongly learnt to subordinate doing what is right and fair to what is convenient and that ‘makes money’ for us in the short run. A local grocer sells rice for the full price but delivers less than the measure; An attendant at a filling station comfortably holds your ‘change’ on the guise that they don’t have any; An airline brings forward their scheduled flight at will with neither regard to its contract with nor the convenience of its passengers; A public official compromises on the quality of the road to be built by a contractor for an illicit payment to be received. In doing all these and so much more at all social, economic and political levels, we have unwittingly created a distrust monster amongst ourselves, the feeding of which takes heavy psychological, physical and financial toll on us all.
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Recall that we brought out the results of the survey by PricewaterhouseCoopers (‘PwC’) in respect of the problems afflicting MSMEs in Nigeria. The most pressing problem is said to be (difficulty in) ‘obtaining finance’ at 22% incidence for which PwC estimated about N617 billion as the pre-COVID-19 annual funding gap. In truth, I believe, we can comfortably bridge this funding gap from our various formal and informal sources if only we could do the right things. For instance, we made mention earlier that the Central Bank of Nigeria alone has invested over N1 trillion in about the last eight years in just the agricultural sector. In addition, according to reported CBN figures, Nigerian banks extended additional N1.3 trillion in credit to the private sector in the first quarter of 2023, bringing total loans to the sector to N43 trillion in March 2023 notwithstanding any political concerns of the bankers that come with election years. So, what is militating against MSME entrepreneurs getting the funds they need? I would say dishonesty and incompetence, to a large extent, on the part of entrepreneurs. Therefore, the government, along with other successful entrepreneurs, influencers, and community leaders need to help in sensitizing the budding entrepreneurs with the imperative of integrity and competence in business.
Re-orient the minds and retrain entrepreneurs: I have always brought out the need to always start with the mind in whatever we wish to do. The philosophies we have and live by significantly determine the outcome of what we do. It is crucial that we sensitize our entrepreneurs into accepting and living with the fact that being honest in business is not an option. In the 1960s and 1970s, Nigerian states and federal governments were excellent in sensitizing the public in all the good that government wanted to achieve. The late Alhaji Magaji Dambatta wrote glowingly about the mass enlightenment of the public when the country was planning the change from driving on the left to the right side of road in 1972. The exercise was so successful that the transition took place in one day across Nigeria without any major incidence. It was so seamless that European countries planning their own transition came to Nigeria to learn how we did it!
This is 2023, mass and targeted publicity and enlightenment is literally dirt cheap. Of course, it must be conceptualized in full detail, planned and coordinated. It must also be driven by competent people who can be trusted and who live by what they say. We need to get our people to return to doing the right things in the right ways. We need our entrepreneurs to understand the need to always keep their words and always do the best they can. No investor or creditor will make their funds available to entrepreneurs and businesses that are incompetent and whose business records are not kept properly. It does not happen, and we cannot be an exception in a world of natural and human laws! The Dangotes, BUAs and GLOs have gotten to where they are partly because they would always pay their debts. The funding gap estimated by PwC can easily be met if entrepreneurs and their businesses will do the right thing that investors and creditors expect and demand.
Our entrepreneurship success as a people will revolve around three factors; the environmental opportunities, which are bountiful in our country; the knowledge and skills of individual entrepreneurs which can be acquired over time; and the integrity of entrepreneurs and their business in everything they say and do which must be the foundation on which everything else can be built to last.
Next week, we will try to summarise the critical success factors that entrepreneurs should be aware of in ‘Putting Everything Together’.
